| Academy Trip to Manchester United |
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The Week in Person
Saturday 10th July
The flight was extremely hectic
and tiring. For some odd reason Ahsan was winning the Trivia
Challenge, but I overestimated him at that moment. We arrived
in Manchester finally where an extremely chilly wind awaited
us. The rain made matters worse and my hands started to feel
numb. It’s definitely a change from Karachi, the weather, the
environment and the people. I’m still a bit jet-lagged, but
I’m sure I’ll get used to the weather. The thing I still don’t
know is how to get used to my nervousness of what challenges
may come upon us in football. Today was definitely fun though.
It was fun hanging out with the coaches and playing pool. This
will definitely be an experience, a thrill, a thing I will
always remember for the rest of my life as a thing I
experienced with my club Karachi United. So let the journey
begin. – Fahim Sachak
Sunday 11th July
In the morning, after breakfast
we met Mike, one of our coaches, and left for Denstone College
in a huge coach. I fell asleep on the way but the moment we
got there, I woke up. It is an amazing and beautiful campus.
We got there and took our stuff to our dorms with our
roommates. I’m assigned with Shahab Raza. We are both
centre-midfielders so I guess that’s why we’re together. We
then had lunch, where I didn’t like the food, it was some kind
of lamb or something. After that we went straight and got our
kits and had a little talk. I met Gareth, the other coach,
Linda and Val who supervise the college. They seem really
nice!
We then changed and went for
the first session, really easy but more on control. After that
we had a snack and the some time to rest. At 6:30 we had a
match against Staffordshire. They were alright, even though we
lost 4-1, but we played really badly. After that I realized
that I have a big responsibility that I have to uphold, and
it’s going to be hard. Straight after the match, we had
dinner…PIZZA! Now that’s more like it. Overall the day was fun
and I’m hoping its like this the whole week! – Danesh Gilani
Monday 12th July
In the morning I woke up when
Imran Bhai pushed me off my bed. In our first training session
we did a lot of awareness stuff and in the later sessions we
played a small game and the overlapping stuff. We spent our
free time in the common room and played air hockey and
foosball. We had dinner at 5:30. After coming back from our
third training session we sat together and listened to each
read their diaries. Today we learnt a lot of stuff like
awareness, man-marking, anticipating play, overlapping,
finishing, etc. I just hope that all this stuff sinks into my,
what Gareth calls, “bank of knowledge” so when I go back to
Karachi I can teach other people at the club and can practice
myself so that I can improve and benefit the club and
hopefully Pakistan. All of us, especially the coaches, have
worked really hard in making this possible and I’d really like
to thank Imran Ali, Adeel Rizki and Taha Alizai who have all
put in lots of effort to make it possible. – Faizan Amlani
Tuesday 13th July
The day started in the same
fashion as Monday. Hot showers were taken and breakfast was
eaten followed by the chilly morning session. All we did was
do different drills involving us working against each other.
By this time I was really admiring Gareth and his coaching
style. After having lunch, we had a small seminar about the
history of Manchester United. We saw how it progressed from
Newton Heath to the today superstar Manchester United. Again,
some tennis was played. This time me and Shahab against the
Woodie brothers. The doubles was won by them but by winning
our singles matches we brought the cup to a decider. Taha Bhai
was playing a dirty game of chip chop and to be honest I
didn’t want to run for everything. No excuses. Taha Bhai won
the match in a tie breaker with some nice serves and broke my
unbeaten streak. After having dinner we went for our usual
evening session. First switching the play followed by the
match which me and Omar had to do most of the work being
wingers. All the play had to pass us and then we had to cross.
I believe I hit a few decent crosses, even with my left and
ended the day on a high note. – Daniyal Alvi
Wednesday 14th July
Today I woke up extremely late.
I almost missed breakfast. Then I had to hurry to get changed
for our morning session. We had a skills test. In that test we
just had to pass the ball though four hurdles below 30
seconds. I scored highest under 30 seconds. Danesh got one
hurdles under 30 seconds. After that we went upstairs, changed
and went for swimming again. Gareth said we should because it
would relax us. He went also. Before that Gareth taught Ahsan,
Faizan and me how to kick the ball better. Our kicks actually
did improve. After swimming we had a match. I was pretty
nervous because I didn’t want to do badly as I did last time.
This team we played was much
more friendly. That team also had a U-15 Manchester United
player. A Thierry Henry looking person. So his nick name
became Henry. We lost the match pretty badly but most of the
goals weren’t my fault. We then went for dinner. After that we
all grouped up in Imran’s room to have a lecture from him.
There he made us look at the good and bad points of our game
and he made us choose the best players and people who need to
improve. This night was much more serious compared to the last
night. In that session we also thanked the coaches for all
their hard work and stuff. Then we went to sleep. – Danyal
Gilani
Thursday 15th July
Today was probably the best day
we will ever have. The morning was slightly different. We had
breakfast at 7:30 and then we were off to Carrington. We got
there and for about half an hour we watched some of the
members of the Manchester United first team train. I got
autographs with five different players and personal pictures
with Roy Keane and Carlos Queiroz. It was great to see people
like Rio Ferdinand and Alan Smith. These are people I look up
to and admire. Seeing them in person just made my day. After a
tour around the academy, we headed off to Old Trafford. We had
a tour guide who showed us around. Believe it or not we got to
sit in the dressing room. These were places where Roy Keane
and Ronaldo sit every other week. That was brilliant. We got
to go out in the stands and on the benches. We learnt a lot
about the history of Manchester United through the museum.
Then we went to the trophy room. After the tour was done
everyone went to the mega store. Some people spent a lot, but
I didn’t because I wanted to do my shopping in London. We
reached back at Denstone around 6. Then we had dinner and a
slightly late session. We played a match in which I didn’t
play well. Anyways, the day was amazing and I’d like to thank
Gareth and Mike for making this possible for us. – Omar Akhter
Friday 16th July
Today was the big day, the day
we would face Tranmere Rovers. Gareth had kept telling us how
good they were and that they had the best youth system in the
country. That, however, didn’t scare me but made me excited
because one of the big reasons of this trip was to see how I
match up with the best in the country at my age. And here was
my chance. However, my day didn’t start off very well at all.
The previous day I had been feeling a sharp pain in my right
knee whenever I put pressure on it, but it was really hurting
bad today and I had to pull out after the warm up. The
remaining players on the field didn’t play that good and I
started to worry about the game for the first time. I didn’t
even know if I was playing. But at 2:00, Gareth called me to
his room and iced my knee and told me that I was going to
play. We boarded our bus at 3:00 and reached near Liverpool,
home of Tranmere Rovers. The ground was just amazing. We
fought really well and I had a really excellent game until I
gave away a penalty by slightly pushing their striker. He took
it well and then the ref blew the whistle. I regained my focus
during the team talk and went out feeling confident. We again
played pretty alright but their little striker scored three
really good goals. Still we were playing well and I was having
a great game. The third period was again very good for us and
this time we made some good attacks, mainly through Alvi and
Danesh. But they scored another goal and I headed in an own
goal though I couldn’t have done anything about it. In the
fourth period we fought for every ball and won most of the
50-50 challenges. Alvi was continuously terrorizing their
defenders. After the game, Gareth said he was really happy
about the match as we each gave a 100% and put into practice
the things Gareth had been teaching us all week long. Burger
King on the way back, and I ate my heart out: A large double
whopper meal and a double whopper sandwich! We then reached
Denstone late at night and I had to go to sleep. – Ahsan
Minhas
Saturday 17th July
We had our usual breakfast was
which was scrambled eggs and toast. After breakfast, we did
our last minute packing. After that, we a had a seminar in
which Mike lectured us about nutrition and the Academy of
Manchester United. After the lecture, Gareth and Imran Bhai
gave us farewell lectures. Then we received certificates and
goody bags from Gareth and Mike. After the seminar we
struggled with our suitcases, to get them downstairs. We said
our goodbyes as we prepared to leave the place for which we
had adopted as our home for the past week. Gareth had given us
so much time and attention. We prepared for a distant journey
to London by bus. I slept at the end of the ride. We deposited
our suitcases in the hostel we were staying at and hit the
London streets. We went to Lillywhites in Piccadilly Circus
first. Football items were the main thing to shop for on
people’s list. We spent about an hour in the store and then
headed for dinner at McDonalds. After that we went to see
Spiderman 2. That was fun but we returned exhausted as it was
getting late. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
– Moiz Salahuddin
Sunday 18th July
Today was our last day of
touring. We went on a bus tour and saw all the famous spots.
We saw the opening of some really bad movie and had McDonalds.
We went to Virgin Megastore and I got posters. We also waited
for an hour for Mickey to get shoes. We had to rush back to
the hostel so we could pack up our newly acquired stuff and
leave for the airport. Some stayed back for their own reasons.
We left in the cool train for Gatwick. In the Departure
lounge, I saw the most emotional Imran Bhai ever as he hugged
us. The plane ride was alright. I slept the whole time though.
It was sad though, we all were going to be different but good
because we could now all be the best of friends. In Karachi,
Mickey lost his luggage so it took us some time to get out and
meet our waiting family. – Murtaza Naqvi |
